


Once a Jedi

by Llwyden ferch Gyfrinach (Llwyden)



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 01 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5467382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llwyden/pseuds/Llwyden%20ferch%20Gyfrinach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once their group has joined the rebel fleet, Ezra tries to figure out what Fulcrum's deal is. Or what Kanan's deal with Fulcrum is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once a Jedi

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kuruk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuruk/gifts).



> Many thanks to my wonderful beta, without whom this would have a lot more ellipses!

It was weird, learning they were really part of a big Rebellion - capital R - against the Empire, not just a bunch of troublemakers on one planet. Not really a surprise, Ezra supposed, but weird. All of a sudden, there were all these people around he didn’t know and who mostly didn’t know him, but who knew what he’d been doing. They were happy about it, but after slipping through the shadows for so long, it was just…yeah, weird.

Sabine seemed pretty comfortable here, talking shop with the gunners and troops, even though Ezra could practically see her fingers twitching at the temptation of all the white walls. He wondered if he could get a racket going taking bets on how long till she snapped and brought out the paint.

Zeb was pretty much the same, minus the artsy twitching. There were plenty of folks here who had experience fighting the Empire, and cantinas every level of the main ship where they swapped stories. Ezra mostly rolled his eyes and left him to it.

Chopper was…heck, who knew what a droid did in his downtime? If he wasn’t trying to trip Ezra up or blast him in the legs, that was enough.

Hera hadn’t been as surprised as the rest of them, of course. She’d sort of known about this, and had a place here. She spent most of her time talking to Commander Sato and the others about strategies and situations and other things that Ezra was trying not to think too much about. Not that he didn’t think it was worth it, but it all made it seem so big. Fulcrum - Ahsoka Tano - had talked about entire systems they were trying to cause trouble on, and when you thought of the size of the Empire…so Ezra just didn’t.

But that aside, it was all nice. Good to know there were others out there who hated the Empire too, and were actually doing something about it. That you weren’t the only one.

Well, as long as you weren’t Kanan. Whatever was going on in his head, Ezra had no clue. Well, okay, his first grumpiness had been at Hera knowing about all this and not saying anything. But they seemed to have worked that out, at least mostly, and Kanan was still grumpy. Mostly about Fulcrum. Not that he was actually saying anything about it. He just gave her doubtful looks and got twitchy when she was nearby. So, since dealing with a grumpy Kanan was way low on Ezra’s List of Fun Things to Do, he figured he’d go to the source.

The other source.

He found her in a mostly deserted observation deck - a few folks sat around tables or on couches talking quietly, but she sat on the floor a distance from everyone, her knees almost brushing the transparisteel, looking out into space.

Ezra flopped down not too far away. “Hey.”

Ahsoka Tano glanced over at him and nodded. “Ezra Bridger. You’re Ca…Kanan’s padawan.”

“Um.” Ezra rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I guess. You’re Hera’s contact with the rest of the rebels. Is that how you knew all those things you told her?”

“More why than how, but a bit of both, I suppose.” She gave him a slight smile. “But you didn’t come here to talk about rebel intelligence. You want to know why Kanan doesn’t trust me.”

“Huh?” Ezra tried not to look like a nerf caught by a speeder. “Um, no! I mean, of course he does! We all do; why wouldn’t we? I -”

She laughed. “Don’t worry, it’s hardly a secret. But not everybody has to get along just because we fight together. We’ll have each other’s backs if we need to.”

Ezra sighed. “Look, maybe you’re not the best of friends; I get it. But so far, there’s been two types of beings we’ve met with lightsabers - Jedi, and Inquisitors trying to kill us. And near as I can tell, all those Jedi were illusions or something. So you’ll have to forgive me if I get a bit twitchy when he doesn’t cheer and hug you. Or whatever.” Kanan wasn’t much of the hugging sort. “Are you a Jedi or…” She didn’t look like an Inquisitor, or act like one, and after a second, he finished lamely, “…not?”

Ahsoka shrugged. “That’s not really an easy question. And that’s part of why Kanan’s not sure if he should trust me. I was a Jedi. I left. It’s complicated. And the Jedi can be bad sometimes at trusting Force users who aren’t them. Something to do with all the others trying to kill them.” She got a pained look and stared at the floor, and Ezra winced.

“Sorry.”

She took a deep breath and looked up. “Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault. But any Jedi that survived are bound to be even more suspicious than before. Betrayal like that is hard to shake off.”

“I don’t get it,” Ezra confessed. “Not the - I get the not trusting part for people like me. Or, maybe not, I don’t know.” He was sort of starting to be a Jedi himself now, after all. “But, wouldn’t Jedi just…know?”

“We’re…they’re…not magic, Ezra,” she said, her voice like Kanan's when he was rolling his eyes hard. Then she got quiet for a moment, and when she spoke again it was sadder, with a bit of anger behind it. “And the Dark Side can be hard to see. The Emperor was.”

Ezra frowned, still trying to work that all out. And trying to figure out if he should trust Ahsoka. And if Kanan should. And if he should say anything to Kanan about it. Or maybe to Hera?

Ahsoka put a hand on his knee. “Don’t. Don’t worry, and don’t try and talk Kanan into or out of anything. He’s pretty stubborn, from what I’ve seen.”

Ezra laughed. “Man, you can say that again. Wait -” he eyed her suspiciously. “Were you reading my mind?”

“You don’t have to be a mind reader to know what you were thinking,” she answered. “But Kanan and I’ll be fine. We’ll have each other’s backs, and we’ll make do. Maybe we’ll be friends, maybe not. Always in motion is the future,” she said with the gravity of a quote.

Ezra groaned. “Yep, you are definitely a Jedi.”

Ahsoka grinned.


End file.
